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Gain or Loss
Bob sold Joe two parcels of real estate for $120,000 each. Bob made a 25 percent profit on the first parcel and a 20 percent loss on the other. Bob figured he still made a profit on the combined sale. Or did he? How much did Bob gain or lose in the combined transaction?
A. +$14,000
B. +$11,200
C. -$6,000
D. -$14,000

Watermelon on Water Diet
You go to the store for a watermelon. It weighs 10 pounds and the label states it is 90 percent water. After a long, hot car ride, you return home only to determine that the heat reduced the watermelon's water content from 90 percent to 80 percent. How much does the watermelon now weigh?
A. 3.5 pounds
B. 5 pounds
C. 7.5 pounds
D. 9 pounds

Socks in the Dark
In your sock drawer you have six red, six yellow, and six green socks. In complete darkness, how many socks must you draw to have a pair of each of the three colors?
A. 9
B. 10
C. 12
D. 14

Gloves in the Dark
There is a drawer with two pairs of yellow gloves, three pairs of red gloves, four pairs of green gloves, and five pairs of blue gloves. In complete darkness, how many gloves do you have to draw to ensure having a complete pair of gloves matched in one of the colors and with proper handedness?
A. 9
B. 14
C. 15
D. 29

Number of Hairs
Are there two human beings alive today who have precisely the same number of hairs on their bodies?
A. Yes
B. No

Ships Meet
Every day at noon a ship leaves New York City for Southampton, England. At exactly the same time another ship leaves Southampton for New York City. Each crossing lasts seven days and seven nights. How many New York-to-Southampton ships will the ship leaving Southampton today meet during its journey to New York?
A. 6
B. 7
C. 10
D. 15

Journey Through the Earth
Imagine there is a tunnel right through the center of the earth from one surface to the other. Into the hole you drop a 10-kilogram weight. What would happen? For extra credit, how long would the trip to the other side of the tunnel take? Assume the earth to have a circumference of 40,000 kilometers, be of a uniform density, and ignore air friction and temperature differences.
A. The weight would remain at the center of the earth.
B. The weight would oscillate from one surface to the other.
C. The weight would project out of the opposite hole.
D. The weight would stop about three-quarters of the way to the opposite surface.

Three-Child Families
What is the probability of a family with three children having at least one girl?
A. 1/3
B. 1/2
C. 3/4
D. 7/8

Lost Socks and Murphy's Law
Imagine that after washing five unique pairs of socks you discover that two socks are missing. Which scenario is more likely?
A. The two missing socks make a complete pair and you're left with four complete pairs of socks.
B. The two missing socks do not match, and you are left with three complete pairs of socks and two orphaned socks.

A. Sorry. In fact, Bob lost money in the transaction. $120,000 is 125 percent of $96,000, so he made a $24,000 profit on the sale of the first parcel. That’s great. But $120,000 is 80 percent of $150,000, so his loss on this transaction was $30,000. The combined sale represented a loss to Bob of $6,000.

By a factor of how much is the one case more likely to happen than the other?